UNICEF says a year on from Pakistan’s catastrophic floods, millions of children still need support

By MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations children’s agency is warning that a year on from Pakistan’s catastrophic floods, millions of children still need humanitarian assistance and access to essential services. Friday’s warning from UNICEF comes as authorities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province race against time to evacuate people from areas inundated by the overflowing River Sutlej. It also came months after dozens of countries and international institutions at a U.N.-backed conference in Geneva pledged more than $9 billion to help Pakistan recover and rebuild from last summer’s floods. But most of the pledges were in the form of project loans, and the projects are still in the planning stages.